Sampling different types of Grains

Ever wondered what the difference is between a Vienna and Munich malt, American 2-row Pale and Maris Otter malt, perhaps even Chocolate and Roasted malt? Like with many homebrewers so have I and as all the books I have read, podcasts I have listened to, and seminars I have attended suggest we should taste our ingredients and learn more about them to help better understand how they impact the beers that we brew I decided it was time to get to work on this.

Obtaining samples

Whilst at the National Homebrewers Conference (NHC) 2014 at Grand Rapids (Michigan) last June I attended a session on ‘Evaluating and Judging Beer’ which included a section on making teas from malts in order to sample them. Jamie Floyd, owner of Ninkasi Brewing Company, suggested contacting brewing supplies companies to see if they have samples of their different grains available.

Tray of different grains

With this in mind I reached out to Juno Choi, Marketing Manager for BSG Handcraft, to see if he could help me out. BSG were extremely helpful and sent me a selection of grains which I could take along to my local homebrew club, the Black Hops Unit of Centre County, here in Pennsylvania and as a group sample and discuss the variety of malted grains available from countries such as Chile (Patagonia Malt), Germany (Weyermann™), Ireland (Malting Co. of Ireland), UK (Crisp Malting Group& Simpsons Malts) and USA (Rahr Malting).

Preparing the samples

To make it easier to see the differences in appearance between the varieties of grains I purchased an airtight box with 23 separate compartments so a different grain could be placed in each. In addition to this I had a few different grains of my own which rounded the number up to 30 so these were placed into airtight plastic bags.

Coffee Maker for preparing the Teas

Whilst chewing a few grains gives an impression on the taste and texture of the different malts, another method explained at the NHC session is to make a tea for each as follows:

Crush 1 oz of grains

Steep in 3 cups of 150F water for 15 minutes

Cool and then taste

A video I found on YouTube suggested using a French coffee press to do this but as I did not have one I took Jamie’s suggestion of using a coffee maker which I thoroughly cleaned beforehand to ensure the grains did not all have a hint of coffee! I placed the milled grains in the filter paper, added the water then turned it on. Once steeped the tea was poured into Mason jars and allowed to cool.

Let the sampling begin

Teas made from malts

One comparison that making grain teas allows is comparing the different colors of the ‘mini-mashes’. Here are the 6 teas that I made and the range of colors. The teas are arranged in Lovibond or darkness order and my aim was to try and pick a range of malted grain types:

Weyermann Bohemian Pilsner – pale pinky-yellow.

Crisp Maris Otter – pale lemon.

Weyermann Munich Type 1 – yellow

Crisp Crystal 60L – deep amber

Crisp Brown – deep amber

Crisp Chocolate – black

Whilst milling the grains I found the Crisp Brown and Chocolate malts harder to grind as they seemed to not only be hard kernels but also to have almost polished-like appearance which meant the rollers found it tough to grip them. This was resolved by using a dowel to press them down which allowed the rollers to grip and crush them.

Next up was tasting the teas and the grains themselves, below are our observations on a large selection of the grains together with the lovibond (darkness) range, description, flavors, plus suggested usage rates courtesy of BSG and the various maltsters (they are grouped together by malster and within that are in order of darkness):

Weyermann Pale Wheat

Lovibond: 1.7 – 2.4

Description: ideal foundation grain for continental wheat beer styles like Hefeweizen and Kristallweizen, and an essential ingredient in North American wheat ales.

Tasting: Hard brittle grains with flour flavor.

Rate: up to 80%

Weyermann Pilsner

Lovibond: 1.5 – 1.9

Description: a German, lager-style base malt produced from high-quality, 2-row spring barley. It contributes a pale-straw color to wort and adds mild, malty-sweet flavor with gentle notes of honey.

Tasting: A little sweeter than the Bohemian version below.

Rate: up to 100%

Weyermann Pale Rye

Lovibond: 1.6 – 2.0

Description: made from high-quality German rye to exhibit classic rye malt characteristics.

Rate: up to 50%

Weyermann Bohemian Pilsner

Lovibond: 1.7 – 2.1

Description: produced from the “Hanka” barley variety. Known for it’s characteristic qualities of flavor and aroma that define Bohemian beer styles.

Description: a light-colored base malt made from a blend of American 2-Row barley varieties.

Rate: up to 100%

– Grains from other maltsters –

Briess Blackprinz

Lovibond: 500

Description: will contribute the same color characteristics as Black Malt but without the bitter, astringent, dry flavors or aftertaste.

Flavor:

Subtle, smooth

No bitter, astringent, dry flavors or aftertaste

Very delicate, clean flavor

Mild roasted malty flavor

Tasting: Burnt.

Rate: up to 10%

Briess Victory

Lovibond: 87

Description: Good for Nutty Brown Ales.

Flavor: Toasty, biscuity, baking bread, nutty, clean.

Tasting: Full-on maltiness.

Rate: up to 25%

Castle Abbey (Aromatic)

Lovibond: 17.4

Description: Gives a strong taste of cooked bread, nuts and fruit. Has a bitter flavour which mellows on ageing, and can be quite intensely flavoured.

Tasting: Intense maltiness.

Rate: up to 10%

Castle Belgain Biscuit

Lovibond: 19.3

Description: a very pronounced “toasty” finish in the beer. Imparts a warm bread and biscuit-like aroma and flavour. Promotes a light to medium warm brown colour of the mash. This malt is used to improve the roasted flavour and aroma that characterize ales and lagers lending the subtle properties of black and chocolate malts.

Tasting: Cracker and biscuity.

Rate: up to 5%

Castle Special B

Lovibond: 140 – 155

Description: used to produce a deep red to dark brown-black colour and fuller body. Unique flavour and aroma. Gives much colour and raisin-like flavour. Imparts a rich malty taste and a hint of nut and plum flavour.

Tasting: Black treacle and raisin.

Rate: up to 10%

Dingemans Belgian Caravienne

Lovibond: 20

Description: a light crystal malt used by Belgian breweries in producing Abbey or Trappist style ales and is appropriate for any recipe that calls for crystal malt.

Gambrinus Honey

Lovibond: 20 – 25

Description: sometimes known as Brumalt, has an intense malt sweetness free of astringent roast flavors which makes it perfect for any specialty beer.

Tasting: Honey after-taste.

L.D. Carlson Flaked Oats

Lovibond: 2.5

Description: Used in producing oatmeal stout.

I would like to extend my sincere thanks to BSG Handcraft for sending me the grain samples that I could share at my local homebrew club meeting and enable a group of us to explore a variety of different malts as well as improve our homebrewing knowledge. BSG Handcraft can be found here: